Michelle Is An Ironman

The other real kicker about the Ironman is that it has a midnight deadline. No exceptions. The end. If you don't cross the finish line before midnight, it doesn't count. It doesn't matter if you were one mile away. It doesn't matter if you were 500 feet away. It's absolutely heart-breaking after a year of your life, thousands of dollars, and a 17 hour day of busting your ass racing. For the spectators, you have to stand there watching the big giant clock tick up to midnight knowing you can't do a goddamn thing to help or make your friend (husband, wife, parent, etc) get there any faster. I wasn't prepared for the insane amount of stress of waiting at the finish line just praying she would make it. We fought our way down into the chute just so we could be there at the big moment even though she wouldn't be able to see or hear us and I knew that official race photographers would be there to take her picture. And then, we waited. And waited. And waited. You can't see down the course because it's pitch black dark. You just have to wait for your runner to emerge out of the darkness and finally make their way in. I began to just scream down into the darkness "Come on, Michelle! Get your ass in here! Pick it up! Let's go!", entirely for my benefit of letting off fear and stress and anxiety. Finally, I saw her and I knew she was going to make it! She could barely shuffle in to the chute but she managed to high five some people along the way and I grabbed her picture.

How do you pick one photo to sum-up an ~20 hour day when your best friend is running an Ironman? You can't really, it's impossible. But I think this shot of her running to the finish line, well after dark, just before the midnight cut-off in fact, sums up my relief and joy for the 20 hour day.

It is, by far, not the best picture I took all day. But, for me, it does bring a fitting close to a very stressful day that took, 16:47. I am so proud of her. I think she's crazy but I am so proud.